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I’ve had this request a few times & have clients who have been comfortable speaking with prospective clients. This assumes I feel I can help the person from my consultation with them, & that it would be a good fit.

I don’t share any PHI & the client can choose if they want the person to call them (so their contact # is shared), or if they want to call the prospective client.

Something you may want to consider for the future is using a (HIPPA compliant) potential client interview form, where you can reveal what the person wants/needs.

This makes excellent use of your time together too...and, don't take this wrong — I also use it to look for red flags. The important thing is being the best «fit» for both of you so you can be at your best.

If a potential client makes me uneasy at the interview stage, I would kindly and firmly let them know I am not their best fit. I might say, «thank you for that question, however it makes me uncomfortable because...(confidentiality, HIPPA or whatever) and give your reason, and see where that leads.

Hope this helps. BTW — You are welcome to grab my interview form from my website :) www.hospitaltohealth.com

I offer a link for clients to leave me a Google review when my services conclude, or earlier if there is a long standing relationship. Leaving a review is their option and what they put in the review is their choice. If I have a client ask for a reference, I send them to my reviews.

if you have an MSW, you can get insurance through HPSO for a ridiculously low premium

Hi, I appreciate everyone sharing their information and knowledge. There seems to be a great variety of classifications patient advocates fall under. I'm moving forward, thank you all!

It sounds to me like this exclusion would be if you were doing the billing for a physicians office or other healthcare provider. I would seek clarification to make sure they don't think you are actually doing medical billing.

BiBerk has me listed as Healthcare Management Social Services. My rate is based on my annual exposure, which is based on my annual revenue.

Hi Alison,
Welcome to this wonderful advocacy community!!.. I am Sangeeta Buragohain, an Independent Patient Advocate, Physical Therapist / Insurance reviewer by background and a part time advocacy liaison at Greater National Advocates. I specialize in hospital and rehab advocacy.

HI alison! welcome and thanks for introducing yourself!

There's a huge thread of introductions. I'd like to encourage you to add your info there and interact with others in that conversation!

gnanow.org/community/taking-business-to-next-level/general-tbnl/91-welcome-to-pa360-please-introduce-yourselves.html

Hi Alison! Nice to meet you! I am Sofie, and I work at Greater National Advocates as a manager. I don't practice advocacy directly, but I work hard to make sure our advocates get what they need and keep GNA running smoothly!

Hello everyone, I’m Dr. Tabu Terrell, a retired emergency physician and the founder of HealthStrategix, an independent patient advocacy practice based in Fort Mill, South Carolina, just outside Charlotte. I practiced emergency medicine for 14 years and was board certified in the specialty for two decades. Long before I started HealthStrategix, I was the person friends and family called when a diagnosis or treatment plan didn’t make sense to them.

My focus is the difficult middle stretch of an illness: when specialists give conflicting opinions, when a family is facing a hard treatment decision, or when care has become complicated enough that nobody seems to be looking at the whole picture. I help patients and families understand what they’re hearing from their doctors, prepare for appointments, and choose a path that fits their goals. HealthStrategix is direct-pay and independent of hospitals and insurers. I meet with clients in person in Fort Mill and virtually.

I’d love to connect with advocates who focus on billing, insurance appeals, or care coordination, since those clients often need clinical interpretation too, and I’m happy to trade referrals. My site is www.gethealthstrategix.com. Glad to be here!

Hello everyone. My name is Shanequa. I'm reside in NC. I primarily work with complex patients. I'm looking forward to learning from you all.

Hi all! Mallory from the Virginia side of the DMV. I work primarily with complex, chronically ill patients and love a medical mystery! Feel free to reach out to me directly if you have a weird one — I might have some resources or suggestions!

I'm using Carepatron. It's so-so, but gets the job done. I'm planning to consider other platforms as my business grows, but Carepatron has a pretty solid free-tier so I'm finding it to be a good option as a «starter home» so to speak.

A quick sanity check as you weigh options. Skip the portal obsession: Most clients in a health crisis do not want another login, password, and 2FA to manage. They want clear PDF briefs, organized agendas, and clean invoices delivered directly to them.

Audit your true day-one needs: the majority of solo advocacy comes down to four basics: tracking time/retainers, structured encounter notes, medical chronology mapping, and visit agendas. Most everything else is bloated software overhead.

Watch the lock-in: When a platform controls your records, switching later if pricing jumps or support degrades is brutal.

If you're already having a bad experience with a vendor before signing an agreement, trust that instinct. Keeping early overhead near zero and owning your records locally often serves a solo practice far better than renting clinical software.

I use SuiteDash and absolutely love it, they offer everything I need, and as each employee completes the task they need to do it automates to the next hand down, like for example once intake has them onboarded and the consult appointment set it automatically goes to the advocates for care and work.

Just an update on this. I went with biBerk who was the only provider that could cover everything I needed and who also is a fraction of the price of some of the other quotes (~$750 vs $2000+).

Jenny's recommendation of Dennis Bernstein (dennis.bernstein@piascins.com) was a huge help and I'd recommend people connect with him if they are in the market for an insurance broker.

Thanks again for everyone's insight!

I use Biberk but only because it was recommended to me. My agent April was very thorough in finding out what I do and what I need. She bundled a couple of things and got me a good price. Thankfully, I have yet to need it but it covers general, cyber, and professional liability and includes an umbrella policy with extra coverage for property as well. I do in person as well as virtual advocacy so I wanted to cover all my bases. Good luck to you!

Hiscox

John!!!
Google workspace includes an e-signature feature and costs less than $30/month!

yes, that helped me very much. I appreciate it.

I use Carepaton. I just started my business and found it very easy to use. It does have a BAA and the client does not need an account to sign the documents I send them. I pay $50 a month. It has an AI script and many templates to use for your notes. Hope this helps!

I wish I could've made this! I really wanted to! I'd love to hear anything you learned that you found particularly interesting or enlightening.

I am looking forward to the upcoming lecture. I have a few questions and thoughts regarding the discussions around AI regulation.

When people advocate for limits on AI, are they primarily protecting society, or could these restrictions inadvertently limit access to a technology that could benefit everyone?

In my experience working with Aphaia, AI served as a tool to help express my own thoughts rather than generating opinions or ideas for me. With my background and education, I view AI as a platform to assist communication while still actively challenging and shaping the content myself.

I look forward to hearing your perspective on these points during the session.

Hi James!

I'd love to connect. While I don't specialize in pancreatic cancer, I did work in a hands-on patient care clinical role for two year in gastroenterology and I have multiple personal lived experiences with complex post-surgical care.

Heres a link to my calendar if you'd like to chat: calendly.com/rebecca-wholestoryadvocacy/fellow-advocate-meeting

Welcome, James. Fifteen years of managing your own care and your father's across that many systems is real expertise, and I'd love to connect, since I am also new and my clients often need exactly the kind of organized record you build and yours may sometimes need a physician's read on what's in it. I am located in the Charlotte, NC area. If you 'd like to connect here is my calendar:

link.gethealthstrategix.com/widget/bookings/colleague-connection-call

Welcome James! As I grow my business, my niche is GI cancers. I am in Washington, DC—together we cover both coasts. I would love to connect for 30 minutes to discuss ideal referrals, creating a personal health record, and more.

If interested, you can pick a meeting time at www.care-champions.com/networking

Hi Annie

I am a former SLP and now advocate. Have a good bit of experience with Parkinson’s patients. If you have questions feel free to reach out
Have you checked your local Parkinson’s organizations? I’m sure you have as you helped your mom

Kind regards
Angie Galatas
Medical Advocacy Plus

Hello Annie:

What are you looking for in terms of a mentor?

My background is close to 10 years (1/2027 will be 10) as a registered nurse who, from that perspective, has always advocated for my patients, and I do have experience with loved ones who have Parkinson's Disease as well as Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and related neuromuscular and neurodegenerative diseases.

I'm relatively new as an independent patient advocate and have my BCPA exam scheduled for Saturday, 10/10.

I've written the following articles that may be helpful:

* compassioncrossing.info/how-to-identify-end-stage-parkinsons-for-hospice-admission/

* compassioncrossing.info/understanding-parkinsons-disease-a-guide-for-families/

* compassioncrossing.info/parkinsons-vs-alzheimers-key-differences-explained/

* compassioncrossing.info/navigating-parkinsons-disease-a-compassionate-guide-to-advance-care-planning-palliative-care-and-hospice-support/

Please do know that my personal business — Compassion Crossing, LLC — at compassioncrossing.info/ covers more than advocacy, and since I don't accept insurance, it is very sporadic for me to obtain clients. Most of my clients to date have been seeking help with value-based advance care planning (which is very different from the traditional method), and I just started working as a 1099 healthcare advocate for Solace Health.

HIPAA and personal privacy always matter, so I'm not sure how mentorship would work.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you.

I am new as well to Advocacy but 40 years previous business knowledge. That is I owned my own place during that time. It would be easier for you to just call me at 513-673-6987

D. John Bishop

What is «vibe coding?»

Yes, I'm interested in feedback! Try it out and let me know what worked, didn't work so well, which features should be added! My goal is to create useful, no/low-cost tools for the important work patient advocates do!

Has anyone tried this out?

Just a word of caution to all of those who use website content management systems, such as Wordpress: they have the ability to take down your site at any time, for any reason. And you'd lose everything that lives there. That lesson came from Trisha Torrey's own personal experience, as it happened to her.

An aside — if anyone wants the name of someone who has built incredible sites for multiple independent patient advocates, feel free to reach out to me. I know him personally and can vouch for his work.

That being said, kudos to all of you doing it on your own! Super impressive.

I use Squarespace for my website. You can't bill perse but you can sell on the website. I bill through my ehr platform Ona Health. The backend is Stripe. If you are just looking to bill Stripe is great for this. You can invoice and create payment links.

I purchased my domain name, build an HTML file website using Claude, and then uploaded it through Netlify. It sounds complicated, but it was actually pretty simple. My practice is new and I only have a handful of clients, so I'm only taking payment through Venmo and Zelle, and my business banking account also has a native invoice and payment tool.

Thanks so much Jenn! Onboarding is such an important step in building a strong community of advocates!

And, as always, thanks to AnnMarie for all the great work!

Jenn,
I'm… speechless.

Thanks so much for your kind words. I'm so glad you found it worth your time, and worth the brief wait.

-AnnMarie